Access to Government Data

To make government information accessible or open it is not enough to put it on a website in some structured way. The talk adresses questions like: How do we deliver information to people with urgent questions, no time, no patience, different languages and different backgrounds? And how do we reach citizens who do not know what they – as citizens – have to know?

Open Meteorological Data

Several studies confirm the socio-economic benefits of weather services. Open meteorological data add to those benefits by increased use. This talk describes experiences and goals of MeteoSwiss on the track to a possible open data policy.

Usage & users of geo.admin.ch: the open access to geodata in Switzerland

Since 2010, geospatial data of Swiss governmental agencies can be viewed and accessed over geo.admin.ch in a fast, free and state of the art manner. Over 200 datasets are accessed by up to 50’000 users daily. In an analysis we show which datasets were actually requested by different user groups and our lessons learned to leverage usage itself.

Open Linked Data at the “Swiss Federal Statistical Office” (FSO)

The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), together with the Institute for ICT-Based Management (Bern University of Applied Sciences), has successfully completed a pilot project aimed at creating a true RDF Datastore with some of its population data. The FSO is currently considering extending this pilot project in two directions: internal and external.
From a strictly internal point of view, any such extension can only make sense if data production and data dissemination are closely integrated in FSO processes. The implications of this must still be evaluated. A certain fact is that the use of SDMX as glue between data and metadata is paving the way
towards such highly integrated data flows.
The external implications are of another nature. The FSO must work towards standardization of of its metadata. The introduction of a clear URI structure as well as restful services is of central importance. The FSO is committed to these goals and is taking the appropriate steps in that direction.